Resorts in Canada?

Looking for some suggestions of good Canadian resorts/places with good riding nearby? Hopefully going over in August with my working visa and need to find somewhere to work! BC area obviously 🙂

Whistler is the obvious choice but apparently very expensive and “fake” – plus I imagine competition for jobs is gonna be really high. I was looking for somewhere a bit less touristy where there’s a reasonable chance of getting a job at a resort, bike shop, supermarket etc?

Fernie had a really nice feel to it – it is MUCH smaller a resort than Whistler. It gets busier at the weekends. Its a place real people do real jobs, not mostly focused around leisure and tourism like Whistler is.

Golden / Kicking Horse – Golden is the town, Kicking Horse is the mountain resort. It was really quiet, which suited us. We rode in the bike park and barely saw any other riders (mid week). Also there is tons of natural riding so we bought a map and explored the Moonraker trails which are between town and the resort themselves. There are a couple of bike shops in town plus one up at the resort.

Silver Star is billed as the ‘new Whistler’ without the lift queues. I’ve not been and I doubt we will get there this year as our road trip won’t take us in that direction.

Canmore / Banff – both lovely, i’d say Canmore was less touristy – Alberta rather than BC but right in the Rockies. Canmore had a really friendly feel to it. Loads of opportunity for riding, natural rather than park riding.

Thanks for that, nice write up 🙂 I’m looking for (if possible) a good balance of riding, job and night life – I’m gonna be doing a “moose network” west coast tour to see a bit of everything and most importantly meet some new drinking buddies 😛

Of the places I have ridden

Fernie – resort – nothing special – off piste some of the hardest riding I’ve ever done – I wouldn’t be able to find it again without a guide though

Canmore – Banff – goat trail at the back of 3 sisters – piss easy to ride but stunning scenery and well worth the afternoon it will take – single speedable 😀

Outside Calgary – race of spades is a good jumpy/north shory ride in the woods – up lift required in my opinion

Calgary – bragg creek area – good general trial riding – like glentress blue but better scenery

Calgary – Bowness park – sublime single track if you can find it 😀

Calgary – olympic park – supposed to be pretty good now

Calgary – lots of hidden steep almost impossible to ride chutes down to bow river – if you can see the cliffs about 400 ft high then thats them

Whistler – disappointing after all the hype

Nelson BC – fire road climbs promise not much but absolutely fantastic trails and pretty tricky too

Squamish – best 2 days riding that are not in italy – Brilliant

Kicking horse – pretty good uplifted resort – trails a bit bashed further up but play park stuff seems good year on year

places I’d like to live/work

Nelson BC

Golden BC

Fernie BC

Canmore is just about ok

places I hate being in

Whistler BC

Squamish – town BC

Calgary AB

Banff AB

Thanks for that, lots to think about and I’m spoilt for choice! Nelson sounds like a good place to check out.

The kind of riding I’m looking for is downhill really – I don’t mind XC/trail but much prefer descending and jumping to loads of long climbs! Saying that I don’t really ride the most “gnar” dh at the minute.

don’t forget Sunpeaks resort in Kamloops, also there is the bike ranch there as well

http://www.sunpeaksresort.com/

http://www.kamloopsbikeranch.com/

I was in Canmore a couple of years ago at the mountain bike centre and loved it for XC and a nice play park for honing yer skills!

However, I was then able to head to Whistler and the downhill riding is superb. The Kokanee bike festival was on and there was some great pro races to watch. During the festival many of the big companies are there with their fleet of demos so I had a go on several of the big DH bikes for free!! I did get a few weird looks though as I only had my lycra and a road helmet 😯

….Oh and saw a few black bears from the lifts. An amazing place to visit, I thought. Loved our rockies road trip before this.

I probably can’t get down til about September now so I think I’m gonna miss most of the mtb season and events this year 😥

Nelson’s great, but it’s not exactly a resort. Plus, you’d need to pedal your bike and job prospects would be limited. Amazing riding though.

True in Nelson you need to pedal up first – but I found much encouragement from the bears – I thought I was tired until I saw them 🙂